Dust Festival
by DewWater
Summary: The Folk are a strange and curious people...but they delight in trickery, and never, ever spend the night under their Hill. The hunt is on. SasuSaku One-shot


**A/N: Well, it's me again. So far, all of my Naruto one shots seem to be SasuSakus, ne? I should try for some variety…(grumbles to self incoherently). Oh, and I don't always quote word for word. And if the quote accuracy is not relevant at all, like it wasn't even there…sorry. Oops.**

**In any case, I was greatly inspired by the anthologies of Terry Windling and Erin Datlow, (did I get their names right this time??)on faerie and dark fairy tales and ancient legends of different cultures, (I've always been interested in that sort of thing). It's rather fascinating. **

**So, this is what I make of it all, mixed up with Naruto and some dark humor. –grins- Review if you don't find it too strange. Or rather, if you enjoyed the strangeness of it all.**

--

**Dust Festival**

**--**

_Ask us no questions, and we will tell you no lies, Hermione!_

**-**_Fred and George Weasely, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_

"_Here."_

_He presses a little object into the palm of her hand. She opens her fingers curiously, and laughs. "A button?"_

_He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Maybe," he says sarcastically. "It's…" he continues in a more serious tone._

"_Something to remember you by?" Sakura suggests. "Wow, you _are_ a romantic after all! I knew it!"_

"_Hn."_

_She stares at the little blue button. "Thank you."_

--

Present Day, Tokyo

--

A man walks into a shop.

It is an inconspicuous shop, rather grimy, located just off the side of a major street. Bicycles pass close to it; close enough so that the riders' fingertips brush against the weary walls.

"Ohayo-gozaimasu," says the girl behind the counter. She is shy and timid, not at all the proper make up for a storekeeper, even for this type of small shop. It is dim and dusty inside, even less promising than the place appears on the outside.

The man does not answer her, taking the time instead to glance around at his surroundings. Seemingly not impressed, he turned back to the timid girl, who stares at him and fidgets. She pushes a strand of black hair behind her ear.

"What will it be today, Uchiha-san?" she presses with a small, child-like voice.

The man answers with a question of his own. "Where is your cousin?"

The girl starts and flinches so badly that she knocks over a display of flowers located behind her. She quickly rights it in the same movement, as if by reflex.

"Neji-nii-san…is out," she says quietly, although her eyes are downcast. The Uchiha man frowns slightly, his coal black eyes hardening.

"Do not lie."

"But…b-but…" the girl stammers, "He really has gone out on an errand."

"What do you take me for?" the man drawls in a relaxed voice, as if he has all the time in the world. "Tell me the truth, Hinata. Where is your cousin?"

The girl finally looks up, her white eyes uncertain. "I can't tell you, Uchiha-san."

The black-eyed man laughs darkly, and slips a 100 yen note onto the countertop. "My patience is dwindling." The girl does not glance at the money, but her fingers twitch slightly next to a dirty phonebook. The man does not miss the movement.

"Take the money, Hinata. We both know you need it."

Hinata starts again, but this time not as badly, and reaches out to grab the bill. The Uchiha stops her. "But first…"

"Neji-nii-san…he is negotiating with the banker, about our lease," she says quietly. "Please do not say that I told you where he was."

The man nods swiftly, hands her the note, and stalks out of the store.

June 21st, 1829

London

_There was to be a masquerade ball that night. The windows of the home of the Hyuuga family are lit brightly with red lanterns, and the laughter of the maids as they set up cups of punch rang throughout the household._

_Crowds of people, all wearing glittering, eerie masks over their faces, are gathering in a line before the great hall double doors, all in pairs, all laughing and gossiping, not a care in the world. There would be wine, of course, and that was enough cause for gaiety as was necessary._

_The streets are vacant, all but for the pools of light and shadow that are cast by the street lamps. A fleeting movement, and then it is gone. A young woman emerges into a pool of lamp in the middle of the cobblestone street. _

_She is dressed elegantly: her family is obviously very well off. A laced up ivory colored corset, tapering at the waist, with a long fanning white skirt that is edged in gold, brushing the uneven paving. Half of her face is covered by a mask depiction of a bird. _

_She glances around, an innocent expression adorning her features. As if she is looking for something, but cannot quite remember why._

_Quite suddenly, a smile, sweet and cajoling, spreads across her white, miniscule features. "Do come out where I can see you."_

_A figure stepped out of the shadows._

"_Sasuke-kun," she says in greeting, her tone pleased, but underneath is a hint of barely controlled panic. The man that now stands with her in the light is tall, though thin, his skin even paler than the girl's. His eyes look at her coldly._

"_You may stop with the pretenses."_

_The bright green eye behind the girl's mask flickers, but the one that is fully visible does not betray any sign of weakness. "…pretenses?" she says softly. _

"_I know what you are," the ebony-haired man says darkly, his voice icy. His tone is bitter as he glares venomously down at the girl. Her smile does not falter: it grows wider, revealing tiny white teeth._

"_You've had too much wine," she says softly, stepping towards him and draping her white, white arms around his shoulders. The larger, more uncovered one of her eyes blinks up at him, owlish, the other half hidden in shadow. _

_Carefully, the tall man takes a step back, prying her arms away. "I do not drink," he says stonily. "Both of us are perfectly coherent."_

"_But are we?" she replies, for the first time, a note of sadness in her voice._

"_Yes," says Sasuke, no regret in his eyes as he leaves her there in the street. "Yes, I am sure of that."_

_The girl is standing alone in the pool of light again._

He finds the older Hyuuga just where Hinata said he would be.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the white-eyed man says by way of greeting. Sasuke offers a curt nod in return. Neji waves the banker away for a moment, (a short, squat man with flyaway hair and chubby cheeks; he has a son that often buys potato chips from the Hyuuga shop).

"Speak quickly, what do you want?" Neji asks, motioning to a hard-backed, stiff chair. Sasuke does not sit; instead he contemplates the Hyuuga with calculating black eyes, a piercing look that often caused Hinata to knock over things. The older Hyuuga, however, did not so much as let his pale eyes flicker.

"…a confirmation, in fact," Sasuke says after a long pause. Both men possess several things in common: cold eyes, though in opposite shades; tall and thin builds; and above all, an overwhelming aura of being used to getting respect.

Neji's eyebrows rise on his forehead. "Of what, may I ask?"

Sasuke shrugs casually, not really looking at anything, (this was his way). "Some information that I…ah…happened upon, if you take the meaning."

"No, I do not 'take the meaning', but pray tell, what is this data you have acquired?" says Neji, getting exactly to the point, (and this was his way, especially dealing with the Uchiha, who preferred getting to the matter at hand through roundabout ways).

"There have been…" The Uchiha seemed to search for the right words, "…_signs_ of late." He paused again. The Hyuuga was getting impatient by now, and the fat banker was gesturing anxiously over at them from the edge of the large bank's lobby.

"Signs of what?" he demands.

"You know of what I speak," the Uchiha replies coolly, his eyes meaningful. The Hyuuga's white eyes narrow slightly in suspicion, and in disbelief.

"You mean to say…"

Sasuke nods.

"I have not heard of these sightings," the Hyuuga says slowly. "Who is your source?"

The Uchiha waves away the question. "Somebody we can rely on."

The Hyuuga raises an eyebrow. "The Uzumaki brat? Surely he is not what you could call 'truthful'?" Sasuke is seemingly undeterred by the Hyuuga's opinion of his correspondent, and shifts slightly in his chair, glancing airily at the impatient banker and then back at Neji.

"Hinata trusts him," Sasuke says simply.

"Hinata loves him. I am sure that you would agree that this would cloud her judgment?" Neji says coolly, something in his tone implying that it was not only Hinata that he was reprimanding. Sasuke's coal black eyes narrow.

"I did not come here to listen to you preach to me, Hyuuga."

Neji sighs. "Very well, very well. I shall assist you. Now leave, I have business to attend to."

January 17th, 1817

London

"_Sasuke, slow down."_

_The little black-haired boy is running down the street, but he stops and turns at the sound of his brother's voice. Uchiha Itachi's grey eyes are soft, although his voice is harsh. "But nii-chan…" the smaller brother protests._

"_You may run about as you please, once we are back home in Japan," Itachi says, looking around at the crowds over his little brother's head. "Right now, stay close to me."_

"_I'm fine on my own," Sasuke pouts._

"_But, I'd prefer to take care of you myself," Itachi says, and that was that. Sasuke offers his hand to his brother, and Itachi takes it. They progress down the street again._

_Itachi keeps walking, but his brother stops abruptly. "Otouto," Itachi tugs on his arm. _

_The older brother looks out into the street where Sasuke is staring. There are two women walking, on the other side of the street. One has long, blonde hair. This one is talking animatedly. The other is quieter: her green eyes stare at her companion as she talks, and her fingers are pale and spidery as she smoothes down her skirt._

_Before Itachi can stop him, Sasuke runs across the street and stops in front of the two women; the blonde ones stops talking abruptly and stares curiously down at him. Itachi curses under his breath, and starts after his brother; halfway into his first step, he decides he would rather watch the proceeds._

_The blonde one is ruffling Sasuke's hair, she is smiling and cooing over how adorable he is. She asks him his name, he gives it to her cheerfully. She tells him that it is a very nice name. Sasuke is pointing over at Itachi. The blonde glances over curiously, but only for a moment._

_The green-eyed one stays quiet, seemingly distracted. She tugs briefly on her friend's sleeve, but the blonde waves her off. _

"_What are you?" Sasuke asks the quiet girl. Itachi can hear him from across the street: his brother speaks loudly like small children do._

What are you_, not "what is your name" or "how do you do". Itachi shakes his head. His brother has no manners. _

_However, the green eyed girl does not protest. Instead her eyes widen a little, and the ghost of a smile steals across her pale lips. Much to Itachi's surprise, she leans down and kisses the little boy on the forehead, ruffling his hair._

"_My name is Sakura," she says._

"Uchiha."

Neji and Sasuke meet at a street corner near the shop, at seven O' clock, when the street lamps turn on and the people are pouring out of their homes after a day's work. They blend into the stampede of people.

Neji motions to a small side door, down an alley. Sasuke nods, and they proceed.

Through the door is a tiny room, lit by a cheery fire in a grate. There is a wooden table, (appearing to be rotting at the legs), sitting in the middle of the asphalt flooring. Her face is flickering in shades because of the fire, but there is a girl sitting on the edge of one side of the table. She smiles, and flashes a peace sign at the two men.

"Yo!" she says cheerfully.

Sasuke raises an eyebrow at Neji, but much to his surprise, the ghost of a smile is etched on the pale Hyuuga's face.

"Tenten," he says both to greet the girl, and to explain her appearance to Sasuke.

"Who are you?" The Uchiha says bluntly, his voice unwelcoming and full of distaste. This cold greeting does not seem to chagrin the girl. She seems, if anything, more cheerful.

"Nobody of importance," she says. "But I think I can help you out."

"Hm," says the Uchiha, doubt evident in his tone. Tenten grins at Neji.

"Looks like we have a doubter," she says, her tone filled with confidence and pride. Tenten was sure she could prove Sasuke wrong. Neji nods in agreement.

"The Uchiha has high standards," he says, sounding amused. He turns to look at Sasuke, who has on a rather stony expression. "Rest assured, Tenten is the finest Tracker that you shall ever find…excluding, of course, myself." Tenten rolls her eyes, but otherwise makes no comment. "In any case, tonight is a full moon," Neji continues. "It is a good night to begin the hunt."

"Hn," Sasuke agrees.

"So, I think we're at the part where we make a plan," Tenten says, shifting slightly from her position on the tabletop. She unfolds a long, long scroll from seemingly nowhere, although Neji knows that she has a secret back pocket for this sort of thing. Sasuke raises his eyebrows as Tenten whips out a pen from behind her ear, under one of her hair buns.

"Well, I'm sure all of us here are acquainted with the fact that a full moon means that the Fay will be up and about," she says matter-of-factly. Both men nod stiffly. Tenten suppresses a giggle at the sight of them, sitting cross-legged on the table with her like schoolchildren, but with such serious faces.

"To be exact, they'll come out from under the Hill, wherever that is. _Perhaps._ We can't ever be 100 sure, because time—"

"—works differently in their dimension," Sasuke finishes in a weary voice.

"Right. Be patient, we've got time," Tenten says, not unkindly.

"Fools are the men who rely on minutes," Sasuke says dully. It sounds like a proverb, but Neji and Tenten suspect they are his own words of wisdom. They do not pry, but instead turn back to Tenten's giant sheet of paper.

"Now…watch closely," Tenten whispers. She leans down close to the paper. Both men's shoulders are stiff with tension and anticipation, as they listen to the scritch-scratching sound of Tenten's marking pen. At last she straightens up. Neji and Sasuke bend over as one to see what she has drawn.

A bunny rabbit.

Tenten roars with laughter and points at Neji's furious expression.

"Okay, okay," she finally gets her hysteria under control. "Let's be serious now."

"You are the only one that would joke at a matter such as this," Neji reprimands her sternly. Tenten waves him away, her brown eyes crinkled at the corners with mirth as she stares baldly at Sasuke.

"Isn't this all just a big case of woman trouble?" she says.

"No," Neji says, again in the stern voice. "It is a very serious matter."

"She's right."

Neji stares at Sasuke, who is gazing intently at the scroll of paper. Tenten is smiling in understanding, much like how a mother smiles at her child when he has just suggested something absurd.

"I always am," Tenten says simply. "In any case, there have been a few signs lying around that the Fay are planning to make an appearance tonight. Naruto was right. You have to look pretty carefully, but the Little Ones have been a little careless." She begins to draw diagrams on the paper again.

"The other day, I went by the Hyuuga shop," Tenten says as she sketches. "I noticed that the painter who had done the windowsill in white paint and slipped a bit with his brush. That's all I put it out to be, until I took a closer look and saw that the paint had run off the edges on all sides, all exactly in the center, as well as in the corners. If you looked at the window as a whole, it would look like a breaking sun." She looks at Neji expectantly.

"Hyuuga Hinata. Double suns," he murmurs under his breath.

"Exactly. It's a curse mark. I alerted Hinata immediately, of course, and we got rid of the paint. It's no secret that the Fay hate your family. You're the reason they keep having trouble with being captured by humans, and having to grant boons, and such as that. It doesn't exactly help that the Hyuugas have longer life spans than normal mortals."

"I also ran into Naruto, as a matter of fact. He told me that he had sighted some loose Glamour floating around, and it's been doing some strange, strange things," Tenten adds after a slight pause.

Neji's white eyes narrow slightly "Define 'strange'."

"Wellll…considering your profession, maybe not all that much," Tenten admits, a wicked, mischievous glint in her brown eyes. "I'm sure you're familiar with Godzilla."

She draws a little cartoon picture of the monster on the scroll paper and circles it.

"It looks like a duck with teeth," Neji says flatly.

"It does _not_! I think it's cute!" Tenten protests. "Admit it; you're melting inside, Neji-kun."

"I refuse. What is all this business with a….baby….Godzilla?" Neji demands, glancing at the chibi depiction of the famous Tokyo terror.

"That's exactly it. It's a baby Godzilla. It was only about two feet tall. It might have passed for a dog, if it hadn't been hairless and green. Naruto took it to a trustworthy family and told them it was a mutant cat. It won't grow bigger than it already is, and it doesn't bite, so neither of us saw the harm in finding it a home."

"Who's family?" Sasuke asks.

"The Inuzukas," Tenten grins. "Little Akamaru can have a playmate now."

"How amusing," Sasuke grunts, sarcastic.

"To get back to the matter at hand…" Tenten says, ignoring him, "…we're pretty sure that the location of the Hill in our world changes randomly at different intervals, as does the Fay time. However, we've got a pretty good idea where to look once the clock strikes midnight."

"Alright," says Sasuke, glancing at Tenten's diagrams. "What do we do until then?" he adds, resenting having to ask for anything from this woman.

"We wait," says Tenten.

September 4th, 1827

Tokyo, Japan

"_I…I've met you before," she murmurs, wonder in her voice._

"_Have you?" he says indifferently. "I don't remember you at all."_

"_I have, I'm sure of it," she replies, in a child's stubborn voice. "I have a very, very sharp memory. Besides, your face is easy to remember. Distinctive. You're very good-looking, you know."_

_He shrugs it off. "Hn. Perhaps we have seen each other before this."_

_She stares at him with frustration, trying to place him. Around them, the pub is loud, the men are boisterous, their tongues freed by wine. Most are bluffing and telling tall tales. The girl ignores them._

"Sasuke,"_ she says all of a sudden._

"_Hn."_

"_That's your name, isn't it?" she says eagerly. "I'm right, aren't I?"_

_He doesn't look at her, instead stares intently at a scantily clad pair of bar girls, who were flirting with a group of raucous, obviously drunk men. "Trash," he mutters darkly, flicking a lump of tobacco off of the counter._

"_Names have power, you know," the girl continues in a softer voice, although the dark haired man sitting next to her appears to be ignoring her every word. "That's what all of the old tales say. Lovers use names to find each other again when they're lost, and parents, by naming their own children, put a sort of protection over them."_

"_And brothers?" the man says abruptly. "What do names have to do with them?"_

_The girl stares at him with a quizzical expression. Sasuke's head is still turned, now watching two men singing a bar song, one of them playing a tune on a wooden flute._

"_Brothers…I wouldn't know," she says, her green eyes downcast. "Do you have one? A brother, I mean."_

"_No," Sasuke says, turning so that he is staring at the countertop once more. _

"_You must have been lonely, growing up," the girl says wistfully, staring at the barman as he cleaned a few glasses from their leftover drops of sake. "I know what that's like…I don't have any siblings either, you see, but I grew up in a sort of…" she trialed off, shaking her head. "It's…hard to explain."_

_Sasuke does not comment, and she does not press him further._

_After a while, he looks up and stares her straight in the eyes, his eyebrows furrowed with concentration. "Sakura," he says in an impassive voice. "Your name is Sakura."_

"Here it is!" Tenten says, cheery as always.

Sasuke's eyes are cold as he kicks the lid to the sewer. It makes a dull ringing sound, and clatters a few times before stopping motion completely and sitting still on the blacktop. "Hn."

"This is a rather unusual gateway," Neji comments dryly, eyeing the sewer opening with distaste. Tenten laughs.

"Yeah, well, they tend to crop up in odd places."

"What about the fabled Hill?" Neji demands. Tenten raises her eyebrows.

"You didn't actually think I meant it _literally_, did you? The Hill is just the gateway that connects the faerie world and our mortal world. How old fashioned is a mound of dirt with weeds growing on it?"

"Hn," Neji and Sasuke say at the same time.

"Midnight's coming," Tenten warns, squinting at her wristwatch, her nose wrinkled against the acrid stench coming up from the hole in the ground. "In three. Two. One."

All three of them tense, staring expectantly at the sewer. One second goes by. Two. Three. A minute.

Tenten coughs. "Er. Maybe my watch is off."

"Tenten!" Neji says sharply. "This is no time for joking!"

"I wasn't joking," Tenten returns. "It seriously might be off."

Sasuke has a glare fixed onto his face, another expression he is accustomed to wearing. His coal eyes stare out at Tenten rather accusingly. "It's not her fault," Neji says stiffly. "Don't look at her that way."

Sasuke raises his eyebrows at the Hyuuga, while Tenten stares at him as if he has grown another head. "Wow. You _do_ love me," she laughs. "Was it my big, brown eyes, or my charming smile that did it?"

To Sasuke's surprise, Neji does not ignore her or reprimand her this time. He smiles slightly and says very seriously, "Neither. It was your clumsiness."

Tenten squinted at him. "I'm not clumsy."

"You are," Sasuke and Neji say at the same time.

"Shhh…" Tenten says suddenly, her ears pricked. "Do you hear that?" Silence fell. The bright, perfectly circular full moon is lighting up the black sky. And in the distance…

"_Bagpipes_?" Neji says incredulously.

July 18th, 1829

London, England

"_Please…come with me…"_

_She is sobbing, clutching the stony railing of the bridge to support herself. "Please, forgive me. Please."_

_He stares at her with something like revulsion twisting his face. And then he turns away, and walks. _

_Thin hands curl tightly around his upper arms. He half turns, and sees a shock of hair the color of the cherry blossoms back home, in Japan. Her face is turned away from him, her left cheek pressed against his back._

_Both of them can hear his heart beating, loud and steady._

_She sighs shakily, trembling. "Wait…Sasuke-kun…don't, don't go."_

_He doesn't move, doesn't dare to, stands stiffly there on the bridge, wanting to be away, wanting to be home, wishing that she had never existed, wishing she were dead._

"_I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you," she is saying. "You know that. There was no way I could tell you, I couldn't," she keeps saying over and over and over again. "I…my kind…I may not be mortal or human, but I can still feel," she sniffles a little. _

"_And I, though I am mortal, have long lost all my human emotions," Sasuke replies calmly._

"_What…what do you mean?" Sakura asks quietly._

"_I did have a brother, Sakura. I was the one that had the pleasure of killing him." _

_She does not release him like he thought she would. She stiffens a little, but otherwise, still clutches his arms. "Oh." He can feel a slight pressure when she smiles, when her cheek turns outward a little. "I suppose I should have expected that."_

"_Hn," he says._

"_I can feel the vibrations when you talk," she says in a small voice._

_For a few seconds, or minutes, or maybe forever, they stood there just like that, and he could pretend that he was happy, and she could pretend that she was above him._

_Then Sasuke shifts, and in a slightly resentful voice, says, "I'll come with you. To your homeland."_

_Her face is tearstained, making it rosier than the usual pale white. Her green eyes are wide. "You…what?"_

"_I…I can't leave you," he says in a strangled way, his black eyes pained. "You're _mine_."_

_She smiles a watery smile up at him. "If I had a heart, then you would have it."_

**You have to be mighty careful around faery, but whatever you do, don't spend the night under the Hill.**

They run into Naruto and Hinata along the way. The two of them have also heard the pipes.

"It's coming from over there," Naruto points, his blue eyes full of excitement.

They round a few alleyways, (a clever shortcut Tenten had found), and come out in a large park full of grass. There, sitting there on a park bench and looking very out of place, is a young woman. She has silvery blonde hair and sitting on her lap, are bagpipes. Her blue eyes, a shade paler than Naruto's, widen as she sights the humans. She stands up abruptly and is about to turn, when Tenten springs forward, and pushes a bracelet of iron onto her wrist.

The blonde screams in agony, but Tenten holds her, and Neji walks forward to assist. They wrestle the girl back onto the park bench, and remove the bracelet.

"Where are the others?" Neji demands. "Speak, girl!"

"I…I don't know," she says shakily.

"Liar!" Sasuke hisses. "Where are they?" His dark eyes are malevolent, and he seems to block out the sky in his fury.

The girl stares at him, obviously frightened, and then suddenly, comprehension dawns on her face, and a smirk works its way onto her mouth. "Uchiha Sasuke," she laughs. "You're looking for _her, _aren't you? She's here, but I wouldn't bother looking." She laughs. "Mortals and fays can't be together. She'll never age. And you? You'll die and rot."

"She owes me," Sasuke says coolly. "It isn't out of childish infatuation that I come here."

"Ah, yes…she tricked you into coming under our Hill, didn't she?" the blonde laughs again, obviously enjoying herself. All of the others are staring at her and Sasuke as they talk, back and forth.

"It was my own foolishness that took me under your cursed Hill," Sasuke seethes, "But she let me out so that I was centuries away from my home. All of my people were dead. The only ones left were the Hyuugas."

The blonde shrugs. "Tis only our way." She pauses. "Ah, but you have caught me, have you not? Now I must grant you a boon." She sighs.

"Tut tut. So careless of me." She rolls her blue eyes.

"Yes, but if you agree to grant us a boon and we do not know your name, you may freely not fulfill it or lie," Tenten says, her brown eyes narrowed. "You must tell us your name first."

The blonde's blue eyes narrow as well, but she has no choice. "Ino."

Neji looks at Sasuke. "Tell me where she is," the black-haired man whispers.

"I can do better than that," Ino says simply.

Sasuke's surroundings vanish. He is caught in a whirlwind of black, and then it is gone, and he is standing in front of the Hyuuga shop.

"Oh," says a small voice.

He turns.

She is standing there, unchanged by time, just the exact same as the last time he saw her five years ago when he left the Hill.

"Sasuke-kun," she says. He has forgotten how she pronounces his name: it is strange, hearing her say it again. For a moment, he forgets why he is there.

"I…I'm sorry," she says quietly. Her green eyes are dry when she raises her head to look at him. "I know that doesn't really cover it, but…that's how it is."

The Uchiha takes a deep breath, and looks up at the luminous moon hanging in the sky. Revenge and murder and betrayal and perhaps lost love…it all seems so distant, so meaningless, as if he has watched it happen by the sidelines. He has suffered loss, yes, and committed terrible sins. He is a marked man.

But she is pure. A trickster, but that is what the Fay are.

He walks towards her, and she walks forward a few steps too, and reaches up with both of her hands. She touches his face like a child. "I've known you forever," she whispers. "Mayhap before you were even born. I was drawn to you. I found you, always, even when I didn't know who you were. It's strange, isn't it? I can't live without you, but I seem to die whenever I stay with you, Sasuke-kun. Do you ever feel like that? That you're dying on the inside?"

"I am already dead," he murmurs. He leans down a little and allows her to press her cheek against his. She presses her mouth against his jawbone, and shuts her eyes tight, and pretends that she is happy.

So they stand there, feeling false happiness when they are dying together.

Purpose has no meaning, and there was no regret and no hatred and no revenge, and there was no nothing, but it was everything again.

The button is hanging from a string around her neck.

It's been there for a long time now, and it's going to be there for an even longer time still.

**Owari**

**A/N: Well, if you liked it, then please drop a review! This was probably my longest one shot ever!!**


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